At least two kinds of homophobic posters created by a Neo-Nazi group have been found plastered around central Townsville.
The Townsville Bulletin reported that the posters were linked to Neo-Nazi group Antipodean Resistance and had been seen at several different locations in central Townsville.
One of the posters has a banner reading “They’re queer, they’re here but not for much longer” with a cartoon of the Grim Reaper with “AIDS” written on his scythe, cutting a variety of rainbow-clad characters.
A second poster juxtaposes an illustration of a mother and daughter and swastika alongside an image of two scantily-clad men and a biohazard symbol.
The Townsville man told the publication he noticed both of the posters had been put up on Stanley Street in Townsville City on Tuesday.
“I’m in a same-sex relationship and I found it a bit disconcerting,” he said.
“You hope their influence is very small but the fact they are trying to spread their influence around other places in Australia is concerning.”
The posters come after the LGBTIQ-friendly Metropolitan Community Church in New Farm claimed that stickers bearing the Antipodean Resistance’s name, swastikas and reading “21st century Hitler youth” were plastered on their signage after the Brisbane Pride march last weekend.
‘No room for such hatred’
The Neo-Nazi “white power” group is militantly anti-gay and anti-Semitic.
Antipodean Resistance last year claimed to have “activists reaching from Townsville to the Gold Coast” in Queensland, the Bulletin reported.
Vile anti-gay posters and stickers bearing the group’s name were spotted around the country during last year’s same-sex marriage postal survey.
Earlier this year, police investigated posters from the group that were seen in Melbourne that called gay people “a walking disease.”
At the time, chair of civil rights organisation the Anti-Defamation Commission, Dr Dvir Abramovich, condemned the “deplorable” posters “in the strongest possible terms.”
“There should be no room in Victoria for such contempt and hatred by a neo-Nazi group which is determined to vilify our diverse and vibrant LGBTIQ community, and send a message of fear and intimidation,” he said.
He said in the past few years there had been a surge in racist rhetoric and white supremacist activity across Australia.
“These kinds of deplorable attacks will certainly shake many to the core and warrant priority response from the police and government,” he said.
